Such Great Heights

by Erin on February 4, 2010

Anthropologie actually calls this the Great Heights Shift, so they are to blame for the instant earworm I just gave you, not me. Honest. (Anyone earwormed with the Iron & Wine version? Raise your hand in the comments.)

Eirlys sent me the link to this dress (I'm pretty sure — Eirlys, was that you?) and I've been a-thinkin' about it something fierce. Not that I will buy this dress, because (given the reviews) it probably wouldn't fit me very well, but because I love this fabric. Love. It. So I keep thinking of ways to get me some. Like, "calling Anthropologie headquarters, tracking down stalking the manufacturer, and begging" ways. None of which will work, because, given the way modern retailing works, this dress was made months ago and there's probably, like, a yard of this fabric left (and it's being used to re-cover an ottoman, or make a cat-bed). Sigh. Anyway, that little picture up there doesn't do the fabric justice, click on the link and do the mouse-y close-up thing. (You know. That thing.) THEN you'll see. This would make the cutest A-line skirt with pockets … or another Heidi, of course.

Completely unrelated: I found an awesome new (old) word for "someone who sews": sewster. You're welcome.

OK first off, this suggestion necessitates several prerequirements that may or may not seem completely whackadoodle to you but:could you reproduce this fabric (or close to this) yourself and have it printed ala Spoonflowering it? Obviously this would require an ability (and willingness) to draw. Its possible stalking- er- begging the manufacturer would be more feasable.

Sorry but my earworm is of the Postal Service variety – for me its Ben Gibbard or nothing, but YMMV.This dress reminds me of that book that was, like, a cross-country drive and you read it and its a day landscape and then you turn it upside down and its the night landscape. The drawings were all black-and-white like this and it was a very popular book when I was in elementary school in the 80s. Anyone remember what that book was called?

While its certainly not exactly the same, I have a fat quarter of a print called City Limits seen here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/15539359@N03/2219623774from a shop in Toronto called The Workroom. Its all black background and is a little more whimsical than the Anthropologie one, but at least its fabric available for sale to the general public!And yes, Iron and Wine, in my head all day now…

I love the fabric up close! However, from afar, its kinda creepy. Does anyone else feel like they are looking at a giant snaggle toothed mouth when viewing the dress from afar? Then again, maybe thats due to the dinosaur related homework I was helping my DD with last night.

I loved this dress, too, when I saw it on anthros site — good luck with the great fabric search!And I wanted to say thanks for the non-earworm, since I dont think Id heard the song before (but its — well, *theyre* — great, so Im glad I have now)!

Oh wow! This dress makes me wish I knew how to screen print. Actually, a lot of clothing I see make me wish I could create prints.@Lisa Simeone:Holy cow I LOVE the NYC subway fabrics! Theyre fabulous. I dont even live in NYC and Id love to make something from them. Too cool.

At thefind.com, on elkabee fabric paradise, theres some fabric thats awful darn close. Sometimes close isnt good enuf, but it was fun to look for it anyway. We dont have buildings that high in Kansas.:o)

I was browsing the comments on the Anthropologie site. I couldnt understand why someone would buy this dress (with a cityscape print!) and write this: CONS: design looks like a city lanscape While I like the fit of this dress, I cant move beyond feeling like Im wearing a black/white picture of buildings. Felt like I was advertising the San Francisco skyline or something. Aesthically Im going to pass on this one.It sounds like the fit and the quality is not so great. Im on the fence with this print and believe me, I love novelty prints.

I was browsing the comments on the Anthropologie site. I couldnt understand why someone would buy this dress (with a cityscape print!) and write this: CONS: design looks like a city lanscape While I like the fit of this dress, I cant move beyond feeling like Im wearing a black/white picture of buildings. Felt like I was advertising the San Francisco skyline or something. Aesthically Im going to pass on this one.It sounds like the fit and the quality is not so great. Im on the fence with this print and believe me, I love novelty prints.

This dress is part of Anthropologies Vera Neumann collection. Maybe the Vera Company would have the info about the fabric. I think we ought to bug them about producing Vera fabrics anyway!http://www.theveracompany.com/index.php

You could stalk the Anthropologie sale page and try to get it in a ginormous size, then you could size it to fit your dimensions. Ive done that with Thrift Store dresses… when you just know youll never come across that fabric again and cant live without it even though there is no way that 22W muu-mu is going to work.

such an awesome print! Im sure you already know about this, but I found your blog through the book Breakfast at Bloomingdales, where it was mentioned. Just figured Id pass that on in case you somehow hadnt heard about it.-indigo

I didnt even realize there was anything other than the Postal Service version of Such Great Heights.OMG, love the City Limits print. I must have it! Hee.AEBL, you are not the only one, I see giant creepy teeth, too. In my case, I see Venom from Spiderman and not dinosaur teeth.

In CBSs magazine (is it called Watch?), a few months ago, they had a blond starlet — maybe Kaley Cuoco — in a black and white dress with a cityscape on it, and she had a matching cape in basically the reverse of the pattern. I liked the picture enough to clip it out, but I cant find the picture online.

Ah, yes, it was me, Erin. Sorry to be so slow replying – Ive been snoozing at the back of the auditorium. Love the fabric and hope youve located a secret stash of it at a bargain price. Agree with the commenter who said this pattern really makes you want to learn screen-printing. Yes, sewster is a great epithet. At the risk of being a sewster-boaster, Ive been using it for a year or so (proof: hhtp://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=5793post=62420uid=30565087588#post62420). Particularly adorable that it rhymes with toaster. Word freaks and limerick fans may also like to know that theres a homonym location in Northamptonshire, UK: Towcester. Any sewsters from Towcester want to step forward?

Theresa’s probably onto something – find out where they send their remnants. My favourite (Australian) design house dumps their end-of-bolt remnants at a fabric store a few hours away, and once a month I scrounge the remnants bin for Cue fabrics to be MINE ALL MINE. They’re often 2m+ pieces, always wide fabrics – awesome! This is mostly so I can pretend that I’d still fit in anything they make.

…yeah, that hasn’t been the case since I was sixteen, before my figure got all womanly on me.